Travel

Sacramento struggles to keep tourists coming (and staying)

By Sarah Frier - Published: 12:00 am

Driving from Canada last week, Tjandra Tjondrotekodjojo's family stopped in Sacramento for only two hours, to see the California State Railroad Museum.

Lincoln's summer residence: Abe and Mary's getaway

By Kathy Morrison - Published: Sunday, July 5 2009 - 12:00 am

Modern-day presidents escape the pressure cooker of the White House at Camp David, Md., where they can relax out of sight of the press and the public.

Finding Mr. Lincoln

Free summer concert series kick into high gear

By Mel Shields - Updated: Sunday, July 5 2009 - 10:49 am

While some major concert venues are offering special deals and slashing prices, many folks are choosing to ignore even those enticements and settle instead for an evening under the stars listening to a talented but largely unknown band, or eschewing a ticketed attraction in a major casino and opting for a free dance party in a smaller one.

Trips & Tours: The festival season gets under way

Updated: Tuesday, July 7 2009 - 12:35 pm

• Valhalla at Lake Tahoe's Tallac site sets the stage for the 30th annual Arts, Music and Theatre Festival presented by Tahoe Tallac Association. The Dream Spirit Baroque continues the celebration at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Tallac Grand Hall ($5-$15).

You go, girl – across the country

By Mel Shields - Updated: Sunday, July 5 2009 - 10:48 am

Practically everyone can point to the exploits of Amelia Earhart and Nellie Bly as unique achievements by women when women were not expected to achieve much. Few, however, can identify Alice Ramsey.

Travel Wire

Bryan Patrick / bpatrick@sacbee.com

The face of El Capitan is struck by a golden band of light that pokes through the cloud layer near sunset at Yosemite National Park in Nov. 1996.
Jose Luis Villegas / jvillegas@sacbee.com

Peach trees burst into bloom and are greeted by yellow mustard seed in a Sacramento orchard on March 18, 1999. The orchard produced peaches, cherries, plums, apples, apricots, and almonds and is being cut down by developer Jim Lennane who is trying to sell the land.
Dick Schmidt / The Sacramento Bee

Date palm trees at the Salton Sea are silhouetted at sunset. The Salton Sea, located about 225 feet below sea level in the desert of Southern California's Imperial and Riverside counties, was created in 1905-07 when an irrigation diversion levee on the Colorado River failed and the river flowed unchecked into the vast desert depression for 16 months. The largest body of water within California, the sea is saltier than the ocean.
Dick Schmidt / The Sacramento Bee

Snow geese take flight against the nearly full moon in the morning sky within the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge near the sea's southern boundary in November 2002.
Bryan Patrick / bpatrick@sacbee.com

A mountain top close to the Pacific Ocean stands above the clouds in Eureka on July 16, 2002.

Travel Troubleshooter

Travel Troubleshooter: Don't lose Amtrak tickets

Q: I'm trying to get a refund for lost train tickets. I bought two Amtrak tickets for my sister and me to travel from Osceola, Iowa, to Denver, recently. Then I discovered that my husband, thinking that the envelope contained old information from a recent Amtrak trip I'd taken to Colorado, threw the tickets away.

Reno/Tahoe

Boom and sizzle on the Fourth

Northern Nevada fireworks light up the sky in multiple locations this year, but only one display is ranked in the top five in the world by the Pyrotechnics Association. That one takes place at 9:45 p.m. on Independence Day over Lake Tahoe's South Shore.

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